[Kevin Camin]

I think you need to systematically trouble shoot what’s wrong with AE CS3.

-Does it import any file types at all? AIFFs, JPEGs, anything? Will it accept footage of any kind (not your current project but any video file)

-Have you tried restarting your computer?

-Have you tried punching your hard drive?

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

H264 doesn’t support alphas. H264 is meant to be a final delivery codec.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

This is definitely more in the realm of motion design and fx work than editing. This would be so much easier to do in After Effects in terms of getting 40 squares on screen. You could do really cool things like have a 3D camera swooping around the squares at a dynamic angle and then pull back to reveal all the squares at once for a climactic finish.

I also think you are going to have to do an extraordinary amount of work to make these people look good. 99% of people don’t know what lighting looks good or how to frame themselves properly. They can have a reference image right next to them, but I bet most will not be able to replicate it well. They are busy, probably don’t want to do this, and are not visually literate people. My point is that your creative director or whoever should be firmly aware this could very well turn into a nightmare, and it will not instantly look very good without a lot of the budget going into repairative work and some of the videos might be unusable.

I work as a motion designer and do some editing. I’ve been to a few rodeos and these user generated videos are always a hard drive full of s#it. People are trying to save a buck by not hiring professionals to shoot testimonals or sound bites, but then spend an inordinate amount of money in post just to make the footage digestible. It is a mistake in my opinion to work this way. They just need to hire a camera guy or gal to go down to the company and replicate the look of web cam footage, but provide you with a clean and clear, well exposed video.

Good luck. I’m not really complaining because I get more work or hours with user generated footage, but I fully recognize it’s usually not the best work practice.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

@Roland-

I don’t think your curve is a good idea. It lowers the white point for the entire image there by reducing it’s contrast. It is the same as what the OP was doing with levels’ outputs.

I would keep the curve ends at the corners and go in and then create a shape like you are suggesting.

If this is a serious issue with a big client where everything has to be perfect, you might have to create a matte for just the blown out sky, and then work on it separately. You have a nice shot and you want to keep the specular highlights looking very bright on the metal binocular gadget.

If this is a still image for your AE project. Just fix it in PS and just mask the sky. PS is an infinitely easier program to work on stills.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

If you want to edit incredibly slowly…use After Effects.

Like others have said, it is not a video editing program. The biggest problem is that you can’t just watch your timeline, you need to render every time, and there is a limit to that type of playback as well.

With a video editing program, (with most codecs), you can just watch your clips instantly if there are no filters applied.

Even if I’m working on a piece that is 90% graphics, I’ll still make a content string inside an editing program and then import those selects into After Effects. After Effects is great at a lot of things, but video editing is not one of them. It would be like using Photoshop to write a book.

*On a side note. I am a little alarmed that you don’t know what a NLE program is. Are you getting a little over your head with these videos? Perhaps you should contract an editor to help you with getting some of the first videos out the door. You can be upfront and tell him or her you want to be trained as well. It would be a good investment. There are a ton of caveats with producing videos that I’m guessing you are unaware of.

Good luck.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Forgot to say thank you back in April. My apologies. Your advise did the trick. Thank you.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks so much!

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

You make a good point.

I need a more organized system. Things can get a little sloppy during a large project because I’m working with other programs that are rendering a large numbers of assets for use in AE–I tend to organize them in a certain, convenient way while in the heat of things, then consolidate them later, when I’m trying to clean up the Finder. There are other situations I can’t really think of currently that cause me to want to move things around later. But I agree, this is a workflow issue.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

At the end of the project I run a ‘Collect Project’ command, and archive everything nicely.

But as a standard practice, I don’t like to keep everything within a folder structure where the AE file is being held. I have a ‘renders’ folder on another part of my drive where I render my Cinema 4D files to. And my video footage is often kept on a RAID. I also have a sizable stock library and keep those assets in another area and am not keen on the idea of duplicating the file on my system in order to move a copy of it to the AE folder.

Another reason to separate things into different areas is that I run two different online back-up synchronizations and don’t want to back-up all the assets online. For instance the video files are physically backed up and stored off-site. It would take weeks sometimes to back them up online for a single project.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks so much. GreyscaleGorilla’s flag was a perfect solution.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin